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Top 25 Blogs for Nursing Assistants/CNAs

Have you wondered what it’s like to work as a certified nursing assistant (CNA) for other nurses, for nursing homes or in other situations? If you take a stroll through webpages focused on nursing and nursing environments, you can discover some working conditions and health issues that can prepare you for your CNA career. This list of twenty-five top blogs for nursing assistants, however, can make that task easier for you.

The CNA may work in nursing homes, hospitals, adult day health centers, assisted living facilities and in personal homes under the supervision of a nurse. In that light, the following list is divided into categories that shed light on various CNA working situations, and each link is listed in alphabetical order within those categories. This method shows our readers that we do not favor one blog over another.

Working in Nursing Homes

The following blogs are some of the best on various nursing home topics.

ElderCare Expert Blog: Cheryl Mathieu, Ph.D., M.S.W. helps people manage the challenges of aging and caregiving, especially with aging parents. However, her blog speaks to problem solvers and eldercare advocates, caregivers and other professionals in the aging profession. “Dr. Cheryl” also owns a Geriatric Care Management business in southern California.

Hospice and Nursing Homes Blog: Written by Frances Parker, a consultant, hospice volunteer and former school principle, this blog focuses on Parker’s experiences and knowledge about hospice care. She shares stories and general information about hospice care, urban nursing homes, caregiving and more. She also is author of the book, Becoming Dead Right, which is focused on the same topics.

Illinois Nursing Home Abuse Blog: Levin & Perconti, attorneys, compile various nursing home abuses throughout Illinois. While this is a state-specific blog, you may find more information about the state where you plan to practice. Nursing home residents are among society’s most vulnerable citizens, and many people are committed to improving the quality of nursing home care and holding these facilities accountable for substandard care and conduct through litigation.

My Better Nursing Home: This blog is written from yet another perspective – Dr. Barbera is an author and a licensed psychologist consulting in long-term care facilities in the New York City area. She lectures on issues related to aging, psychology and nursing homes, so her blog may prove productive reading for any CNA.

The Nursing Home Administrator: Matthew Maupin has been a nursing home administrator in Indiana for over five years. You can learn about topics ranging from diseases to tech tools that can make your nursing home career easier.

Working in Hospice Care

More blogs have begun to focus on end-of-life issues, and the following are just a few of those writings.

Dethmama Chronicles: One perspective from a hospice nurse. You may enjoy the humor, the insights into the hospice industry and the fascination with the afterlife (ghosts and paranormal) contained in this blog.

Hospice Blog: This blog is dedicated to hospice professionals nationwide.

Hospice Foundation Blog: If you’re interested in stories and articles about the end-of-life experience, you might want to follow this blog. Various writers offer their perspectives on a platform hosted by the Hospice Foundation of America.

Pallimed: This is one of the “go to” blogs for people who are interested in palliative care. Its mission is educational, and the content is provided by individuals who work in the hospice community.

The Good Death: Jessica Knapp has been blogging about end-of-life issues since early 2008. She is a PhD student and freelance writer who wants to help people better handle all facets of death and dying. Her posts are filled with facts, questions and many links to other resources.

Working in Hospitals

You might pick up a few cues on how hospitals operate through the people who work there.

Code Blog: Tales of a Nurse: This blogger has been an intensive care nurse for over a decade. She blogs about her experiences as a nurse and the stories of others in the healthcare system including patients, other nurses, doctors, paramedics and more.

Emergiblog: Learn more about hospital workings in an emergency and critical care unit from Kim. This nurse blogger is a registered nurse with an ADN degree and thirty-one years of experience also worked in psychiatry and pediatric telephone triage.

Nurse Ratched’s Place: This is one of the hottest nurse blogs on the Internet. Learn from a nurse who writes composite stories about many different people that she’s cared for over the years. Plenty of links to other nurse and doctor sites, too.

Running a Hospital: Learn more about how a hospital is run from a CEO of a large Boston hospital (which happens to be Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School). Paul Levy shares thoughts about hospitals, medicine and health care issues.

The Happy Hospitalist: “Unfiltered medicine” from a board-certified internist who works in a hospital. The focus from medicine strays at times, but so does conversation amongst hospital staff. This is just one perspective among several internist blogs found on the Web.

Working with Patients

Sometimes the way to learn more about a disease is through the person who has it.

A Chronic Dose: This blog is written by Laurie Edwards, author of Life Disrupted: Getting Real About Chronic Illness in Your Twenties and Thirties, and a victim of multiple chronic illnesses including PCD, bronchiectasis, celiac disease and more. Her blog was named one of Health Central’s Top Sites for Pain in 2007.

Healthy Concerns: Elisa Camahort, co-founder and COO of Blogher, a source for women bloggers, is the author of this blog. She has allergies, she’s concerned about health care and she supplies plenty of resources for the self-motivated reader.

Imagine Bright Futures II: Diagnosed with breast cancer at age 29, this woman had a mastectomy sixteen days after her diagnosis. She writes about her “adventures in medical land,” with information about her ongoing chemo, radiation and tamoxifen treatments.

The Gimp Parade: Kay is a thirty-something disabled feminist, who writes about disabilities and other topics such as abortion, abuse, AIDS and, naturally, feminism.

Undiagnosed Illness: More of an online book with a forum, this patient provides in-depth insights into what it’s like to be an undiagnosed patient for at least four years. Learn more about the frustrations, pain and anger involved in this type of patient.

Skill Blogs (Problems and Policies)

Be In the Know! This blog talks to facilities that hire CNAs. But, the blog is open, and you can read any entry. Their blog focus is on problems that CNAs face, and they provide solutions to those issues. Consider this a learning and skill-honing blog for your career.

HealthWonk Review: Use this biweekly compendium of the best in health policy blogs to learn more about health policy, infrastructure, insurance, technology, and managed care.

HIPAA Blog: Updated information on HIPAA issues, legalities and policies, written by Jeffery Drummond. Drummond’s expertise includes hospital and health care provider representation and working with managed care entities such as HMOs, PPOs, IPAs, and PHOs.

HR Web Cafe: This blog is sponsored by the ESI Employee Assistance Group and focuses on employment issues, people matters and work trends. Although this site does not focus on CNAs in particular and workplaces in general, the issues are universal.

The Health Care Blog: One of the best blogs on the Web for discussion of health care, tech and health 2.0 issues.